If this wasn’t a blog, but a sound diary, the following sounds would describe our week perfectly: singing birds, whining foxes, barking dogs, chirping crickets, the sound of sawing and crunching bread, the rustling of lizards, shuffling footsteps, water splashing in the pool and the gurgling of the Bialetti coffee maker. But as this is a blog and not a sound diary, I’ll go and expand a little further. But keep these sounds in mind, as you read on.
The sound of the roaring engines is dulled by the pressure in my ears. Beneath us in the dazzling sunlight I see white and slightly grey clouds above the mountain peaks of the alps with tiny patches of white from time to time. I’m on my way back home to Germany and I’m wide awake despite it being our usual ‘Italy camp nap time’. That’s not due to it being ‘one of those’ take-offs, firing up the engine, releasing the brakes, accelerating from zero to 250km/h and nearly shooting up into the sky. It’s our usual nap time, but after closing my eyes for a minute or two I awake finding everybody happily munching cookies whose distribution I sadly seem to have missed. So, in anticipation of another round of treats I’d better stay awake and start on the blog post I promised to write.
A week ago, the thought of going back to Italy for training was a promise of relaxation, exercise, good company and delicious food. As I live in Germany, I usually attend the slightly less personal online classes and am one of the ‘Zoomies’. The joint camps in Italy offer a perfect opportunity to travel and train in person and in real-life company.
Back in the days of Covid, when I searched for a Kung Fu club and read the first blog post about the 2019 Italy camp written by Anna, it seemed like the most wonderful but impossible thing to do. Ultimately, it made me decide to join Tiger Crane Kung Fu London. Travelling in times when you were only allowed to leave the house on certain times and in a very limited radius seemed like a faraway exotic dream.
Now, it was my fourth time in Italy. And today it is me that is writing a blog post like the one that finalised my decision to join the club. So, dear reader, maybe this is your sign to come and join Tiger Crane Kung Fu, in person or, if you don’t live in London, online, as I do. It is the one decision I have never ever regretted for one second. For all of those who are already part of the Tiger Crane Kung Fu family, I hope this little post brings back some happy memories.
So, living the ‘Italy camp dream’ is one of the highlights of my year. With tradition comes familiarity and repetition and so, writing the fourth blog post about an Italy camp, I can only wholeheartedly agree with what my predecessors Anna, Yash, Luong and Marc already said and praise the amazing food, talk about the great company and group dynamics, mention the picturesque house and beautiful landscape, fret about the wildlife we haven’t seen but wanted to and the animals and insects we have seen (some of the latter of which I would have preferred not to see or get bitten by) and describe the trips to Citta di Castello and Arezzo, including a good game of jousting and of course the training. Seriously guys, you need to come around to see and learn for yourself, not just read about it in a student’s blog post.
The Food
Twice a day, we drove through olive tree plantations and vineyards over to La Miniera di Galparino to eat deliciously prepared, beautifully presented food that was lovingly introduced by Chiara and her daughter. Day in and day out, they surprised us with locally grown and home-cooked food that made our mouth water, our eyes shine and our exhausted bodies feel stronger and refuelled. So, it wasn’t surprising that our suitcases on the way back were filled with their delicious olive oil, pasta, wine, and jams.
The Group
While many things about the Italy camps have been similar over the years, the group and group dynamics are always a bit different depending on the participants. This year, besides Dave there were seven of us, first-timers and Italy camp-veterans with an age gap of over forty years (no minors involved) and ranging from beginners with a couple of months’practice up to skilled students and instructors with a decade or more of experience.
Our daily team building event was the preparation of breakfast on the terrace. It soon became clear which tasks needed to be prioritised (like making that precious first cup of coffee for Dave) and who was responsible for what. For example, while Lise went out to get the fresh bread (that turned into stone the next day if you happened to forget to cut it), Ben became the egg expert. The one always leftover egg became the running gag as ‘yesterday’s egg’ and the seats with a view were exchanged daily so that everybody could choose between eating undisturbed and being baffled and distracted by the beautiful Umbrian landscape.
One evening, we got pizza and beer and watched the Kung Fu movie Shaolin Temple (1976) at Lise’s place. Can you imagine anything better?
The structure
One of the things I always really enjoy at the camps is the clear and repetitive structure of our days. No need for all these micro decisions that normally keep our minds busy. Train, eat, train, eat, nap, train, eat, sleep.
As simple as that. Get up, start training at 7am with the most wonderful view, green hills, a sleepy sun over the mountains, the mist hanging over the valleys, birds singing and only the sound of our breath, the crunching of our shoes on the gravel, and the rumbling of my always hungry stomach (which hopefully nobody noticed). Breakfast with a stunning view and then training at 9am. A short break to get ready for lunch and then off to La Miniera at 12.30pm followed by a relaxing nap time to gather new energy and hide from the midday heat. Training from 3.30pm until 6.30pm. An hour to have a shower and get ready for dinner and then back to La Miniera. Food, wine and conversations until we happily went to bed around 10pm. Repeat the next day.
In terms of individuality, I personally added two more points for myself to the daily agenda: a non-negotiable short 2km morning run on the ridge of the hill to wake up and watch the sun rise and a dip in the pool before dinner time. On the first day, I joined Ela on her run, and we ended up visiting the ‘dog farm’, where we watched two small dogs chasing an enormous white rabbit that was nearly a head taller than they were and that seemed only slightly bothered by its hunters.
The dogs soon turned their attention on us – probably due to our superior petting skills. They accompanied us back down the hill but only came to the house a day later, when Lise went to the dog farm for a walk. The doggies spent some time at the house, relaxing in the shadows, watching us train, copied us play-fighting and bathed in the attention they got with fresh water and many a hand that petted them.
Citta di Castello
Every year, we go to Citta di Castello for a couple of hours, stroll through the city, buy some presents and eat at ‘the sandwich place’ opposite ‘the truffle shop’ which is actually called ‘Il Tartufaro’ and really makes great sandwiches and fried courgette flowers.
Every year, I end up in the little bookshop with hundreds of interesting-looking books in a language I don’t understand. As always, I plan to climb up on the campanile to enjoy the probably amazing view but then I am too lazy as it is boiling hot.
Arezzo
Our second outing brings us to Arezzo and the rehearsals of the ‘Giostra del Saraciro’ – the ‘Joust of the Saracen’ at the Piazza Grande. Since 1931, the teams of the four quarters of the city named after the main doorways of the old walled city compete against each other. For this purpose, the square transformed into a jousting arena, with two grandstands for the audience and a straight track of sand. Each team has two knights taking turns galloping towards a swivelling mannequin in an attempt to accurately hit the score shield with their lance. To make it more interesting, Lise made us draw the teams we were supporting. While we struggled to understand the scoring rules, the jousting and accompanying show of twirling flags and the parade made it an enjoyable evening.
While it was impossible to make it out from the position of our seats, here for all involved is the scoring shield:
The house
The house always looks as if it’s come straight from a picture book. A beautiful Italian country house, amazing number of bedrooms, up on a hill with a magnificent view and a glistering blue pool on a terracotta terrace. What we did learn this year was that we not only shared some of the bathrooms, but that we also shared the water supply with the other houses. What we usually take for granted – you turn on the tap, and water comes out in whatever quantity you want. Not so in the Italian countryside up on a hill in the middle of a heat wave. After training, we took turns when showering. But we learned the hard way that seemingly small actions can have a wider impact on others as well and a carelessly left running water hose to top up the water in the pool can drain a whole village of their water. Oops.
The wildlife
The lizards were real showstoppers. Yellow-greenish, some small, some bigger, loved to sunbathe on the walls and scurry over the hot tiles.
Besides the dogs from the dog farm, one of the cats we had first met as a kitten two years ago also came to visit us.
The birds greeted us at an ungodly hour every morning, and at night, on our way back from dinner, we saw hare, deer, foxes, and fireflies.
Every year I hope to see a porcupine, but yet again, no luck. Only the lost quills in Lise’s kitchen prove that they are in the area. Fortunately, we also didn’t meet any of the wolves that roam the area as well.
Some of the animals we did see, I would not have minded if we hadn’t. The mosquitos were quite a bit too friendly, and the house centipedes look like some ancient dinosaurs I try not to get too close to. The small black scorpions were exotic, harmless and few enough to be entertaining.
The training
Every morning, we started with two rounds of Shuang Yang on the top of the hill, facing the rising sun and looking over the misty green hills.
After breakfast, Dave explained the focus of the day and what he wanted us to work on. In order to do justice to our different skill levels, he made us incorporate aspects like breath work, stances or trying to move like floating on clouds in our individual patterns.
When the heat got too much, we found small spaces in the house to train, or used the opportunity for a quick jump into the pool.
Without giving too much away I can honestly say that there were many moments of fun, intense training, exhaustion, and also some frustration about too-slow progress. For me personally, as every year, I’m frustrated with myself how badly prepared I am and how much of an opportunity I lose by not being more consistent with my training.
Throughout the day, we practiced and Dave gave us corrections and patiently answered all our questions.
My personal favourite moment was on day three. All the little thoughts, worries and to-dos finally quietened down and made room for peace and quiet, and the noises of the thoughts that are usually in my head stopped completely. I wish I were able to have that luxury more often and also now that I am home again.
From what I hear, the others’ flight to London was not too pleasant, including a two-hour delay of take-off due to the plane being overweight and the runway being too short. But they assured me that the good and plentiful food at La Miniera was not the cause for the delay, and neither the gallons of their freshly made olive oil nor the pasta had to be left behind, but that the airport at Perugia remembered their second, longer runway, which proved to be just long enough to enable them to eventually take off and get home safely.
Some weeks after our Italy camp, Ben brought back the pleasant memories again as the film from his analogue camera had been developed and he shared the pictures with us. And now, with another delay, here is the blog post as a little glimpse and reminder of a very calm and happy Kung Fu week in beautiful Umbria. I hope it was worth the wait. See you next year in Italy!